Alan Moore on Magic and Art – Chaos Magick

I do not know as yet Michael Moorcock’s opinion of “Chaos Magick” and the use it makes of his eight pointed symbol created for the Elric series. I do know however , that he was told by someone just after he created it, that it was ” an ancient symbol of chaos”. His friend Alan Moore on the other hand, has made some statements on the system of Magic itself, a few years ago on the Pagan Dawn site, which are less than flattering as to whether it should be taken seriously , speaking as a practicing Magician.

“More artists seem to be opening up to magical working – and being open about it. Fellow comics writer Grant Morrison is a devotee of Chaos magic who referred to his Invisibles series as a hypersigil. What do you make of the work that is being created by such practitioners?

“I’m afraid I have no interest in Grant Morrison or his work and do not consider him to be either a writer or a magician. With regard to Chaos magic, from a Moon & Serpent point of view it seems that this was simply a more punk-themed English version of the largely Californian ‘New Age’ movement, with both insisting upon simple (and simplistic) magic systems that would bring solely material benefits without any need for dreary scholarship or discipline, the latter styling itself on the worst rainbow-and-unicorn excesses of the 1960s and the former draping itself in the wardrobe of Joey Ramone from only ten years later.

With Chaos magic’s recent move from conjuring the gods of HP Lovecraft to ‘magically’ interacting with the Discworld entities of Terry Pratchett, it appears that both this and the New Age movement were perhaps more properly extensions of fantasy fandom, an attempt at astral cosplay, than they were sincere attempts at furthering the cause of magic ”